Follow Blog via Email

Final Evaluation

Firstly looking back at my presentation and brief of my project, I have highlighted areas and made sure throughout all my work to relate it back to my initial idea. My idea is to look deeper into the mindset than what may appear on the surface, to take the disorder (something that isn’t human) and give it human characteristics. My presentation and brief worked well for me to reflect back to and give me inspiration on how I could develop my ideas. Through this I feel I started small and gradually over time started to understand disorders from a different perspective and feel quite attached to how I could convey a 3D sculptural piece in order to send a message and have an impact to my audience. I decided upon using anthropomorphic personification as I feel the human form would relate the most and have a deeper connection to my audience and sufferers,I wanted my pieces to show how it would appear if it was separated from the person, showing that the person is still whole despite having the disorder.

I started of by looking at mental health as a whole then proceeded to look at disorders and the behavioral and physical effects they have on the person, using the symptoms to imagine how it could possibly look. I used numerous artists for inspiration and seen how they manipulated the human form in order to engage with people, I felt Shawn Coss was a prime example of what I was trying to portray. Within medical background and research he portrays his human-like figures to the best interpretation of each illness, he uses exaggerated characteristics of the form to visually reach out to the audience and challenge there conception of the illnesses. I wanted to keep myself open and took 5 of his works that visually grabbed my attention though not all suited best to my audience that being teenagers and young adults but felt it was a brilliant start for idea generation and through this felt depression, anxiety and anorexia were mostly suited to my audience as it’s the most common disorder and within the age group I set out for and I know this as I was informed by a professional that being a welfare officer at student services. As mentioned previously in my mid-point evaluation I came to the decision that focusing on one disorder would be best to stay within my timeplan and I overall graduated more to anorexia than the other two disorders simply for the fact that the characteristics are also suited to artists I have always been inspired by for example Egon Schiele and his elongated figures.

Also reflecting back to my brief I originally loved the idea of creating a narrative with a dominant figure in control of a subordinate but overtime I feel I distanced myself away from this idea and came to the conclusion that the figure itself could convey the disorder for it’s true self. Through my research I also decided to make my figure nude as I feel it shows vulnerability as the body is exposed and also allows me to show you the physical effects anorexia has on the body and this is why I decided upon using clay for the body as the consistency allows me to define the skeleton-like structure to detail showing the collar bones, sharp shoulders and defined jawline. Again I wanted to keep myself open and experimented within 3D and looked at ways I could possibly involve different materials to suit best, this for me I found challenging as I wouldn’t say I’m a 3D person other than within ceramics. I had many experimentations that didn’t go right but through this it eventually led me to new ways I could incorporate the materials and through the experimentation found my interest within wire. The wire worked well within semiotics, I felt wire could represent how emaciated the disorder is and also suits to the aesthetic when rusted as a disorder isn’t pretty it’s manipulative. It also worked for me as the material is flexible whilst being strong, this is why I decided it would be best suited for the limbs which allows me to give it the appearance that it’s much more elongated and through my research on proportions on the human figure I knew that Michelangelo Buoarroti said that the figure usually consists with the height of 8 heads so I knew through this that I would need to stretch it to around 9/10 heads in order to give it the desired appearance. Not only did the wire work well for this but it worked well within my semiotics and I feel by caging the empty stomach it shows the inability the person has to eat and shows entrapment as the stomach is held prisoner.

Thinking on with the figure I knew body language was also a key element that needed to be involved and that’s why I decided upon using my main final piece focal figure with it’s arms being placed around it’s head showing its a condition of the mind with an effect of the body. The figure being hunched up through the use of body language it makes us see and feel distress and iniquity, body language is a key element in order to have an influence and reaction. With my other two sculptures I didn’t want them all having the same pose and did my two others suiting to when I made sketches and asked people to tally them to the best suited pose that they felt suited to anorexia. The sculpture that appears central is my main focal piece and beforehand wasn’t sure whether I was going to incorporate all 3 though now I have changed my mind due to 3’s working so well with each other and I feel all 3 have there own unique appearance.

Semiotics in my work plays a massive role to capture the representation of the disorder, through research I learnt that my figure was to have the characteristics of an antagonist which is something that usually takes form of the ‘ bad guy ‘ and usually consists of more darker themes and exaggerated features. This is why I decided that my pieces would have more angular shapes, rough texture and demon-like appearance to show the audience at first sight that it’s serious.his is also why I think lighting is a important element of it which I also captured within my photography, the lighting will make the sculptures more dramatic and set the tone. Tim Burton to me has been a massive influence throughout my work whether it’s how he employs the contrast between dark and light, his dramatic shadows within his films to amplify the menacing nature of his characters to provoke emotion and his characters in his animation are so graphic and consist of shapes to form the figure.

As I was interested in Tim Burton I then looked at his inspirations and that being german expressionism and when you see his work in comparison to german expressionism it’s insane how close the similarities are within scenes and character design though Tim Burton has gave it his work his own unique style which what I was inspired to do.

Throughout I would say I kept within my timeplan, though I feel I struggled with keeping on top of my peer feedback, but did originally plan at the start to have my peer feedback every other week which I did but was suggested in tutorial to do weekly in preparation for second year, though I feel through this experience I will be better at using my time to suit all needs. Though I felt confident within the peer feedback I had as I also had my online survey to accompany that with 20 responses, tallies within work and weekly tutorials. I also found it hard keeping my journal updated during practical as sculpting the pieces was quite time consuming, but I knew at the time that this for me was a bigger priority and found myself worrying more about firing times which led me abit off track though I did have to keep in mind that firings were only done on fridays and the tester kiln takes 24hrs through this though I have been flexible with my time frames and kept track of what needed to be achieved within the week.

Through step by steps within my blog posts I demonstrated what techniques and processes I felt suited best to the the final pieces and that being a rough, rustic appearance with the texture of cross-hatch inspired by John Kenn and Edward Gorey. Throughout the whole process within the making I have planned in advance and to my luck the armature worked and as I was already past mid-point I felt I needed to stick within doing this technique due to keeping within my time frame. I feel I got a lot of experimentation within 3D but not as much with making my armature and I felt overall rather comfortable within ceramics and knowing about the clays consistency’s, glazes and oxides as I feel I’ve got a good knowledge on it now from L2 and throughout this first year when making IKEA bowls, this is why I decided upon using white clay straight away as I know the consistency is best suited as it’s more flexible and will show my figure to it’s best abilities.

Looking at my three pieces now I am happy to say that I feel I have achieved what I set out for and have enjoyed the journey within it. For me I feel like this has been a massive learning curve, and feel I have a strong understanding of how to influence my audience in numerous ways. Through research of looking at shock advertisement it gave me interests within the posters in that genre and if I was to give it more scope it would be used within posters around colleges. I feel shock advertisement is suited to how I would convey and send the message to my audience and the love the idea incorporating the pieces. Shock advertisement makes the audience quite disturbed and creeped out, the idea to raise consciousness among the public to then have that deeper more personal impact.

Overall I feel confident that my final pieces suit to my presentation and brief, I have produced 3 final sculptures that represent the disorder anorexia and I feel through inspirations of historical and contemporary artists and through feedback I have captured through the visuals of my interpretation of what it would be to look like if separated from the figure and represented in it’s own form.

I especially love my central piece and hanging piece as I feel these meet my criteria the most and are visually more pleasing to view. Though for my other piece that is placed on the smallest plinth, I feel I did the neck far too long which then made it appear too alien-like and though I feel the disorder makes the person feel alien due to it physically and emotionally affecting them and their actions, I feel it took away the human element within it as the idea is to show how the disorder desires to take over the persons form. I still felt though that for my exhibition that involving this piece with the two other pieces works well as a set and through research in triptch within art I have wanted to incorporate it through inspiration of how artists have displayed them within there exhibitions. Through the use of social media, I put up a picture of my central sculptural piece and have already had feedback of it’s finished appearance and have had a registered mental health nurse on the island contact me asking if they could use a picture of my artwork to show to her patients suffering with anorexia as she feels it helps more visual learners to understand what the disorder would look like if separated from the person as it often helps them remember that there are a person outside of it and proceeded to say that she feels I have captured it perfectly through the characteristics.